


Gingerbread Palace of the  Century

by MarieQuiteContrarie (SeaStar1330)



Series: Holiday Fic Prompts [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Multi, Rumbelle - Freeform, SwanFireQueen, swan fire queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 10:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13005993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaStar1330/pseuds/MarieQuiteContrarie
Summary: "My gingerbread house is prettier than yours."- SwanFireQueen holiday prompt





	Gingerbread Palace of the  Century

**Author's Note:**

> I keep getting carried away. This is set in the Gold Family verse. I've been meaning to explore more of the Swan-Mills-Cassidy family dymanic for a while, and this was a good opportunity!

“This looks ridiculous.” Emma tossed the bag of icing on the counter, splattering white dots of the sticky sugary glue all over the kitchen backsplash. She crossed her arms over her chest, huffing when the bottom edge of the wall she was holding up slid off the cardboard base and onto the floor. She picked up the sheet of gingerbread, now in three pieces, and tossed it into the sink. “These walls won’t stay up! Look at my gumdrops! They’re all gooey and soft.”

“Hey now,” said Neal, “don’t be so hard on yourself. I have great respect for your gumdrops, baby.”

“Thanks a lot,” she muttered.

“We have more gingerbread cooling in the dining room. I’ll be over there to help you out in a second, soon as I finish putting the finishing touches on this masterpiece.” He stuck his tongue between his teeth and Emma glared while he tipped a tray of blue melted sugar, coaxing it to spread into a delicate sheet with gentle flicks of his wrists.

“Is that stained glass?” she asked incredulously. “That’s just great.” She nodded toward Regina’s house. “Look at the two of yours. Regina has freakin’ reindeer frolicking in front of the sugared apple trees of her gingerbread mansion, and you’re building, what, Saint Paul’s cathedral?”

“Nope, it’s a replica of the town hall…and our brilliant mayor’s office,” he replied, flashing his dimples at Regina.

Emma snorted in disgust. _Suck up._ “Between Mr. Artist and Ms. Fashion Magazine Cover, my house looks like the Golds’ cabin after last year’s blizzard. And I mean _after_ the roof caved in.” She dusted dried bits of icing off her jeans, smearing them across the denim and sending them to the floor.  The area around her unfortunate creation resembled the aftermath of an elf paintball war, while Neal and Regina’s workspaces were both pristine.

“Don’t you think you’re being a touch too sensitive, Emma?” Regina asked, piping scalloped icicles along the edges of the roof of her house. “It’s a family activity, not a competition.”

“Just stating facts,” she said flatly. “I’m the least successful person in this relationship.”

“Except for that whole Savior of the entire fairytale race thing,” Neal pointed out.

“Ha! Aladdin’s a Savior, Gold’s a Savior. Everyone around here’s a friggin’ Savior these days.” Emma tucked her hands into her sweater and smoothed her flushed cheeks. “Anyway, my gingerbread disaster sucks the big one.”

Neal grinned wolfishly. “I’ve got a big one you can—”

“Don’t.” Emma dropped her voice and nodded toward the stairwell. “Henry and Gideon are playing Nintendo Switch in his room.”

Regina looked up from piping holly branches over her windows. “You kiss your stepmother with that mouth?” she asked Neal.

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? I’ve heard Belle say worse to my father with Gideon _in the room.”_

“Fine. Do you kiss your queen with that mouth?” Regina slid off her stool and rounded the island to Neal’s side, a delicate heat flaring in her eyes.

“No, ma’am,” he said, then pulled her close and brushed a kiss across her lips.

Emma groaned and grabbed a handful of chocolate pebbles and popped them in her mouth. “I’m gonna go watch some football. Come get me when you two are done competing for gingerbread palace of the century or whatever.”

“You can’t eat the supplies and leave me here with Cassidy.” Regina’s bright red lips pouted prettily, and she swatted Emma on the buttocks. “I still have the nonpareils to add to the roof, why don’t you help me finish and get an edge on smarty pants over there? There’s only room for one of these gingerbread palaces in the dining room centerpiece, and it’s going to be mine.”

Emma appraised the two houses, both of which were spectacular. “I think you’ve got this covered. _Southern Living_ called; they’ll be here at six for your photo shoot.”

“If you stay, I’ll make my special homemade hot chocolate,” Regina offered. “Valrhona chocolate, cinnamon-spiked whipped cream, a bruleed candy cane…”

Emma groaned; Regina knew how to cook and she knew how to bribe. “Fine. But I want the whole pot this time and I’m _not_ sharing.”

“What’s wrong, Gina?” Neal taunted. “You jealous ‘cause my gingerbread house is prettier than yours? Gotta rope Emma into helping you finish the job?”

“I thought it wasn’t a competition,” Emma reminded them, but Regina and Neal weren’t listening. They locked eyes—brown on brown—a bull and a matador preparing to square off.

Regina moved her gaze over Neal’s three-story masterpiece like it was sewage paperwork at a town council meeting. She tapped one of the twisted peppermint stick columns gracing the sides of Neal’s front door, hard enough to make it wobble. “You think I’m threatened by your little shack?”

He picked up a gummy tree and flung it at Regina’s house, knocking the top hat off her fondant snowman. “Oooops, sorry. I was aiming for the trash.”

Regina flicked her wrist, pelting hundreds of tiny multi-colored candy balls in the direction of Neal and his house.

“Ow!” Neal ducked out of the way of the candy shrapnel, still trying to protect his house with his arms. “No magic, remember? Magic is cheating!”

“You should have thought of that before you started throwing candy, Cassidy,” Regina said. She threw a protective force field up around her creation, then started hurling chunks of gingerbread at his house.

Balls of fondant, almonds, and cereal flew through the air, pinging against the counters and the cupboards and rolling all over the tile floor.

“Hey, you guys, wait!” Emma cried, sidestepping as a peppermint stick whizzed by her ear.

“Oh, it’s on!” Neal lunged at Regina, squirting apple red icing all over Regina’s favorite Chanel suit. Regina wrapped licorice whips around his wrists, tying his hands behind his back.

“I _said_ no magic!” Neal yelled.

“This is a $4,000 suit!” Regina shouted back.

Emma dumped a bag of shredded coconut over their heads and tackled them to the floor. She stood over them, breathing hard, her handcuffs dangling from her fingertips.

“Moms! Dad! What the heck are you guys doing down here?”

 _Henry._ Cuffs in hand, Emma whirled around to face him. He was standing in the kitchen doorway, his hand clapped over Gideon’s eyes. “Henry! Gideon! Hey!”

“It’s not what it looks like!” Regina said, scrambling to her feet.

“Totally not what it looks like,” Neal agreed, sitting up to brush coconut out of his hair.

“What _does_ it look like?” five-year-old Gideon piped up. “Henry’s coverin’ my eyes and I can’t see nothin’.”

“Anything!” Emma and Regina corrected in unison.

“Funny how they say kids are the ones who need supervision.” Henry rolled his eyes. “And gross! Not the handcuffs in the kitchen again. Come on, Gideon. Let’s go play at your house for a while.”

“Okay,” he agreed with a small frown. “But I hope you won’t be sad.”

“Why would I be?”

“’Cause Mommy and Daddy don’t have real handcuffs like those ones. Theirs are covered in red fur.”

 ###

**Author's Note:**

> A little gingerbread war before Christmas!


End file.
